Running a small business is not something you can take casually. Even though your business may be relatively small at the moment, the only way you can achieve sustainable success is by nurturing it well and anticipating every challenge. It is also important to know which mistakes to avoid preventing unnecessary disruption in business operations that can prove very costly and even result in the business failing. Some of the best tips on avoiding mistakes from the pros:
Not Being Clear About What Makes Your Business Unique
You need to have a very clear idea about what it is about your business that will make it stand out from the competition. A business that is no different from the rest can be very difficult to sustain. The best thing for a small business owner is to think actively about what it is that can sharply differentiate your business from the rest. While a tangible benefit like product utility, features, design, performance, pricing, etc. is undoubtedly valuable, it is also possible to create a differentiator that is entirely in the minds of the target audience. However, you need to get a fix on your unique selling proposition quickly because it is something you will not be able to change later on as it will lead to customers being confused. Lack of differentiation is held to be a leading cause of small business failure by https://www.inc.com.
Not Knowing Who Your Customers Are
It is not possible for any business regardless of its size to try to sell its products and services to everyone simply because each customer group has specific requirements, preferences, and buying behavior. Unless you focus on catering to the potential customers that you can best serve, you will end up spreading your resources thin and fail to achieve your marketing objectives. This makes it vital for business owners to analyze the market to identify the most attractive niches to focus on and then go all out to attract their attention, sell to them, and keep them happy.
Not Knowing Your Competition Can Wipe Your Business Out, Warns Mike Giannulis
Given that almost all markets witness intense competition, small business owners need to study the competition to find out what niches are fully occupied and do not present much potential for another player. Researching the competition will also help you to discover what customer needs they are trying to address so that you can develop your unique selling proposition more accurately. When you can know the business tactics of the other players in the market, you will be able to develop your strategy that can outmaneuver them. By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of your main competitors, you will be able to figure out the opportunities that you can take advantage of to consolidate your market position, observes Mike Giannulis.
Not Figuring Out How to Communicate to Your Customers
Even you have a very good product on your hands, you need to understand that sales will not happen without the potential customers getting to know about the product and desiring to buy it. This means that you need to actively engage in placing your product on the top of the mind of as many potential customers as possible. Since there are multiple communication channels, you need to first figure out which of them are the best to targeting customers as it is not feasible or even affordable to use all channels. The kind of communication channel you use depends largely on two things; the profile of your target audience that influences the channels they use to keep themselves updated and the reach of your business. Typical mass media advertising like newspapers and TV being very expensive is out of reach of small businesses so it is better to focus on local promotions and engage in targeting customers with email and social media. Taking steps to generate positive word-of-mouth and customer reviews can be very effective in influencing the target audience.
Not Testing the Effectiveness of Marketing Communication
Even after you have identified the most optimal channels for addressing your target audience, you need to be sure that what you send out is understood, appreciated, and acted on by them. This means that business owners or marketing managers must test whether the messages are being read by the target audience and whether they like them enough to take action. This exercise will help you to choose the most effective channels for talking to your customers – the most popular ones don’t need to be the ones that will work the best for you. You can also test which marketing messages are the most effective by observing the response rates to test messages or advertisements.
Failing to Establish a Budget
The importance of budgeting for achieving success by businesses cannot ever be overestimated. The kind of budget you can afford for every important aspect of your business, including production and marketing, will depend on the business model, the business plan, and the scale of operations. Right from the early days, it is important for business owners to keep a strict watch on costs and figure out the fastest method of achieving a consistently stable positive cash flow to make the business sustainable and not run aground for lack of cash. Making detailed budgets for every function will help you to stay aligned with your objectives and prevent you from over or under-spending on critical aspects. For budgets to be successful, they must be rooted in reality and adopt a conservative stance. It is important to start preparing early for each infusion of cash required at various points of expansion of the business.
Conclusion
Traditionally small businesses have a very high rate of failure. This is because many businesses are started on a whim without finding out if indeed there is enough market potential while others falter because of the lack of adequate funds to sustain the business. Another common reason is trying to grow too fast and spreading your resources thin. Given the innumerable challenges to small business success, it is also common to find business owners giving up before their efforts have had a chance to bear fruit.